Digital + Social

It’s a real punch to the gut when some unknown Internet user lambasts your brand for reasons you can’t quite grasp. But as we all know, that unknown user has friend, who have friends, who have friends… But even worse would have been to have not seen that user’s message at all, which is why social listening tools are indispensable in the world of online marketing.

Businesses in general are about to undergo what dogs experienced 50 years ago: “the verge of the humanization of business,” according to social media and ecommerce consultant Gary Vaynerchuk

Knowing that you should establish an email win-back program is quite different from knowing how to establish said program. SnagAJob.com’s recent test, which generated a 10% response among inactive subscribers, shows one way of setting up a successful retention campaign.

When it comes to email marketing, the last thing you need is for your customers to take you for granted. Here are nine ways to connect with your subscribers through every stage of the relationship

The need to replace generic email “blasts” with targeted messaging was a key industry rallying cry during the past year. Sending fewer but more-relevant emails, the pundits declared, would lift open and clickthrough rates and reduce spam complaints, which in turn would improve senders’ reputations among the ISPs and therefore improve deliverability. Why, then, did the number of promotional emails sent by top online retailers increase 16% last year?

Three steps–reducing frequency, creating better content, and redesigning the template–helped lift an enewsletter’s open rates by 30%

In this modern-day David-and-Goliath story, email rather than a slingshot helped a scrappy community group stand up to a major utility company. The group’s efforts raised awareness among legislators, the media, and the public about a proposed natural-gas pipeline that would cut across private farms and Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon.

Spam traps and spam complaints are two common causes of email deliverability issues. Here’s how to avoid them

Home goods and apparel merchant Cuddledown decided that, when it comes to email marketing during the holiday season, more was more. By emailing its list on a more-frequent basis and creating special offers for certain segments of its list, Cuddledown helped to grow its fourth-quarter direct sales by 53% over 2009.

National insurer State Farm Insurance is capitalizing on the popularity of games within social networks with a months-long campaign that will give players in-game rewards for safe virtual driving